The Wind Rises

I've been blessed. The film theatre in my town had four showings of The Wind Rises and I got to see it last night! I'm really glad because there aren't many cinemas showing it in the UK and the film theatre is really cheap too!! This was my first time watching anime on the big screen and it was so exciting, the colours were so much brighter and every thing was so much bigger (especially compared to watching things on my laptop) that I really felt like I was a part of the film! Anyway, The Wind Rises is a Studio Ghibli film and more importantly, it's the last film produced by Hayao Miyazaki. So I was really looking forward to it. Here's what I found out!

First of all, the plot. The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biography, meaning that although the characters and key moments are real, the details about their personal life are made up. To be specific, the movie is about Jiro Hirokishi, an aeroplane designer for Japan during WW2. Jiro is incredibly passionate about aviation and as a young boy dreamed of being a pilot, but he's eyesight is poor so he turns his passion to designing. When he grows up, Jiro goes to Tokyo to study engineering but gets caught in the Great Kanto earthquake which derails his train. He spots the maid of a young girl who injured her leg in the crash and decides to help her out. He leaves with out evening giving the pair his name, but his heroic actions left their mark. So when Jiro bumps into the young lady, Naoko, whilst working for company designing planes for the military the two are happy to see each other and begin spending their free time together. So it's not surprising when Jiro confesses his love for Naoko. But with Jiro devoted to his work and Naoko suffering with Tuberculosis they don't have a cliche obsessive relationship instead they have a relationship that's pure and loyal.

So the story doesn't really move anywhere, there is little development in the characters or the plot to the point that it felt like a feature-length slice-of-life! Which is a strange concept and whilst I can't say that I disliked it, a plot with more happening in it would definitely suit my tastes better. Mostly the movie is filled up with extended dream sequences that contribute nothing to the plot. Also, the time lapses where all so sudden, the film felt very segmented. There are definitely some pacing problems! Otherwise, it was a pleasantly quaint story. I did like the insight into the design process and seeing Jiro come up with all his ideas about aeroplanes was really exciting!
More importantly, let's discuss the animation. This is a Studio Ghibli, a company famous for it's animation and it's Miyazaki's final film! I'm sure he wanted to go out with a bang and if you ask me, he succeeded! This is a perfect film for Miyazaki to end with given his love for aviation. He got to really show off all kinds of planes! Those dream sequences which I wasn't too happy with in the plot really matter when talking about the animation because, obviously, anything can be in these scenes without ruining the realism of the movie! As such, there's all manner of different improbable aircrafts all beautifully designed and animated. Whats more, there's a lot of focus on the sky so we get lots of gorgeous clouds and perfectly animated wind which looks so natural that you can almost feel the cool air! But my favourite thing by far was the scene in the forest where there's a little stream and seeing the water ripple over the rocks it was easy to forget that it was an animation and sudden downpour of rain where you could see each raindrop splash against the ground as the characters got wet! What can I say, I have a thing for well animated water. I understand that water is hard to animate so seeing it done well is not only impressive but also very calming to watch!
Another thing I really liked in this movie was the OST. I think the cinema's high quality audio system helped me to be more aware of the incidental music and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to appreciate it! Usually in OST's violins are played for emotional moments, sad or romantic scenes especially just because that's the usual tone of a violin. But Joe Hisaishi (who has scored many of Miyazaki's films) really knows how to write for the violin. Well I suppose he ought to since he plays himself! He let the violin play in less common styles and showcase a harsher tone. Combine that with some of the more interesting harmonies and you should be able to see why I love the music. It's inventive and unconventional, also, I have a bias for violin based music.
Now the moment had to come when I point out the flaws. Fortunately, this should be a short paragraph compared to the others! Strangely enough, the two problems I had stem from the fact that I watched the Japanese dub so whether these problems exist in the English version or not would be really interesting to know! My first complaint is a rather personal one. That is, I didn't like the voice actor for Jiro, Anno Hideaki. He has very little experience in voice acting and although I don't feel he felt very expressive, that's not really my problem. My problem is that Jiro is a young, friendly man who has the heart of a boy. Hideaki has the voice of an old man and it does not match at all! Hearing Jiro speak with such a low and gruff voice felt so inaccurate that at first I thought it was some one else talking! My second problem is a rather a pernickety complaint: there were several points in the movie where I saw the characters mouth moving before any one started talking by a noticeable amount! It just seemed like a very careless thing to do and it kind of disappointed me!
I'm sorry that this review is quite long but I really wanted to give you an in-depth review! But it basically boils down to this being mostly a show of animation. The story is cute, but in reality, it's too short to make into a full-length movie. So they had to stretch it out with unnecessary dream sequences and ruin any hopes of having a decently paced film. Nonetheless, this film is a piece of art with beautiful animation and sound so if you get the chance, I really recommend you watch this at the cinema!!

Pie: